Pieralongia’s Project

Thomas Monsorno takes us through his interesting photo project that took place under the Pieralongia Tower in Val Gardena. Janluca Kostner e Filip Schenk were with him as co-protagonists of this adventure. Janluca e Filip are two young and strong climbers, that’s why Mammut chose them as its athletes’s team ambassadors. After an indoor competitions career, Janluca is moving his interest more towards the classic and modern mountain climbing. Recently, at 18 years old and together with his team mate Titus Prinoth, he has conquered the Eger’s north wall. Filip, on the other hand, is a very strong outdoor climber and he is actually the Boulder youth World Champion. The skills of those two athletes and Thomas’ artistic talent has been mixed together and what came out was something amazing. Janluca himself tells us what he felt that night.

Pieralongia has three possible climbing routes: you can go either on a simple trail or through the Vinatzer, on the southern wall. We went for the third option, the Schrott path, the hardest route on this peak, especially by night. The Schrott has been free solo climbed for the first time some years ago by Alex Walpoth and some parts of it are 8a. Our aim was just to feel what it was like climbing it at night.  It was an interesting and intriguing experience at the same time. The dark modifies the rock geometries so much that the route is changed into something completely different from what you can experience during the day. It wasn’t for sure the hardest climb ever for Filip but a new experience he was glad to accomplish. “I was pretty tired from the previous day in Marmolada” Janluca said “but at the same time I took advantage from knowing the alpine terrain better.”